The Sussex County Bar Association (SCBA) announces that attorney Alan Strelzik will be honored for his lifetime service to the law as part of the organization’s annual Law Day celebration, titled “Advancing the Rule of Law Now”. The event, traditionally held on or near the first day of May, is a celebration of the Rule of Law in the United States which was first proclaimed in 1958 by President Eisenhower. Normally, the SCBA welcomes throngs of attorneys, high school students, and their parents to a festive event at the Sussex County Court House to enjoy speeches, presentations, and music. However, the celebration has been curtailed for the second consecutive year due to the ongoing public health crisis.

Sussex County Bar Association President Brian Lundquist notes that Strelzik is uniquely qualified to receive the honor this year. “For nearly half a century, Alan Strelzik has not only distinguished himself in Sussex County for his skill in practicing law, but perhaps more importantly because of ‘how.’ He has devoted innumerable, volunteer hours advocating on behalf of indigent litigants in family law matters and victims of domestic violence. He has rightly earned and enjoys the respect and admiration of the entire Sussex County legal community. I can think of no individual more deserving of this year’s Law Day Award ‘in recognition of a lifetime of service to the law.’”

Strelzik has been a member of the bar for 48 years, practicing family law and matrimonial law in Sussex County, New Jersey, for 47 years following a brief stint in Nebraska. He began his legal career at Somerset-Sussex Legal Services and started a law firm with Alfred Kaye and John Vandenberg before merging the firm with his current practice, Hollander, Strelzik, Pasculli, Hinkes, Vandenberg, Hontz, & Olenick, LLC. “I’m proud of my career. In a way, I am a sum of the lawyers I have worked with, for and against. The partners I had and the adversaries I have faced have made me the attorney I am today,” commented Strelzik, who was humbled to receive the Law Day recognition. “It puts me in excellent company.”

Strelzik and his wife, Maureen, have two children and four grandchildren, adding, “Marrying my wife was the best decision I ever made. My greatest accomplishment is my two daughters.” The couple has traveled extensively throughout the world and is looking forward to an upcoming trip to Europe once travel restrictions have been lifted. Active in the community for many years, Strelzik has also served as a board member for the Newton Housing Authority, Somerset-Sussex Legal Services, Rainbows of Learning, and the Center for Humanistic Change.

The 2021 Law Day theme, “Advancing the Rule of Law Now,” resonates today, continues Lundquist. “Although commonly only discussed in the abstract, the term ‘rule of law’ is tightly defined as ‘the restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well-defined and established laws.’ Given our current national landscape, still very much beset by the pandemic and its attendant “patchwork” of executive directives, it is appropriate that the ABA has chosen “Advancing the Rule of Law Now” as its Law Day theme for 2021. The aspirational tenants of our democracy have, and must always be equity, access and the impartial application of law. Each year, Law Day provides us a moment to be reminded of these principles, as well as of our own civic responsibility to actively participate in promotion of this goal.”